Work It Out

Paul's letter to the churches of the region of Galatia had a clear intent. He was aiming at legalism, wrought by what we call "judaizers" who came from Jerusalem and tried to sell the notion to the Galatian churches that in order to be truly saved, they had to believe in Christ, sure, but they also had to follow the Law. Paul responded, "If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed" (Gal 1:8-9). (He repeated it for emphasis.) When Peter visited and started falling into that faulty pattern, Paul actually berated him in public (Gal 2:11-14). This was no small issue to Paul.

In the third chapter we read,

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? (Gal 3:1-5)

Now, most of us -- especially Protestants (I think there is lingering "saved by works" in the Roman Catholic theology) -- are pretty keen on this. We are not saved by works of the law; we are saved by "hearing with faith." But I think that we might actually have trouble with Paul's second question. "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" Oh, we would likely nod and agree that the answer is that we are not perfected by the flesh, but I suspect our actions betray our beliefs. We actually do believe that we are saved by faith but are perfected by works.

"Look," we might tell each other, "do you want to 'be perfect'? Do you want to grow in Christ and grow in sanctification? Well, then, it's quite clear, what you need to do is ..." And we'll have a list. Go to church, read your Bible, pray, do good works, be a good Christian, on and on. These are the common means we aim at to "arrive", so to speak. There are special means, to be sure. Maybe special empowerment (Eph 5:18), special gifting (1 Cor 12:1-7), that sort of thing. But we all need to participate in these common means to be perfected in Christ. But isn't that "perfected by the flesh"?

We get confused, you see? It's easy to do. We read, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Php 2:12) and think, "I've got to do something" and we're right. We look at the world around us and hear, "Nothing comes from nothing; you have to work for what you get" and we go from there ... and we're wrong. We forget that the "do" we have to accomplish is accomplished by "God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Php 2:13). We forget that the will and the power to do what we ought comes from God. So we do because we are supposed to do, but we don't do it by the flesh -- by accomplishing it ourselves. We do it by His power and will.

So we are perfected -- the process we call "sanctification" -- by doing. The mistake we make is in thinking that we do it. We go with the flow. We don't do it "by the flesh." We are, then, perfected by the Spirit working in us to do what He wants us to do. It's quite remarkable, actually. We get to cooperate with God while He works in us to do what He wants us to do and we get rewarded for doing what He's doing in us. That's quite a deal!